![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
- Ending free coffee for municipal employees in the Québec community of Pierrefonds created massive controversy. CBC reports.
- The mayor of the Francophone city of Edmundston in New Brunswick has encouraged immigrant Québec students hurt by immigration changes to come to his community. CTV News reports.
- The price of crystal meth in Saskatoon is apparently as low as $3 a bag. Global News reports.
- Guardian Cities notes how Louisville, low on trees, is trying to regreen the city as a way to deal with rising temperatures.
- Open Democracy considers if the DUP is about to lose its strongholds in Belfast.
- Guardian Cities looks at the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, a place where Palestinians can access their metropolis (and their partners).
- CityLab shares photos of the wonderful new public library of Helsinki.
Friday afternoon, I took myself on a leisurely walk south, down Dovercourt Road and then--above Bloor--down Ossington Avenue to Queen Street. It was a fine summer walk, taking me through an ever-changing string of neighbourhoods that is still familiar, ending with the Antikka coffee shop on Queen. The final photo was taken to the west of this, at the Lumber Loop where Queen streetcar passengers need to transfer to get to Long Branch, the towers of Humber Bay Shores always visible just beyond.
- Transit Toronto notes that both the Eglinton Crosstown yards and Lower Bay station were open this weekend past for Doors Open. I got to see both!
- Urban Toronto looks at the newly revealed Eglinton Crosstown vehicles.
- blogTO observes the rapid flooding faced not only by the Toronto Islands but by the waterfront generally.
- blogTO reports on the exciting possibility of a ferry connecting Etobicoke, at Humber Bay Shores, to the downtown.
- Building a linear park over the subway trench between Davisville and Eglinton stations in midtown Toronto is an idea that appeals to me. blogTO reports.
- NOW Toronto reports on a slew of original coffee shops around Toronto, including a laundromat hybrid on Dufferin.
- Urban Toronto celebrates the Ron Arad sculpture Safe Hands at One Bloor East.
- blogTO reports that the Hearn Generating Station is set to become a public space again this summer with a party.
- Laneway housing in Toronto, now legalized, is starting to take shape as an architectural form. The Toronto Star reports.
- The new Artscape Weston Common project for artists at Weston Road and Lawrence will hopefully help a neighbourhood taking on a new form. The Toronto Star reports.
- A redditor at r/Toronto confirms that the venerable Coffee Time outside of Jane station, supposedly closed for renovations, will not reopen.
- The last Mmmuffins store in Toronto, somewhere in the PATH, is also set to close. blogTO reports.
- The selection of Toronto-born Lilly Singh to be the next late-night host on NBC really breaks all sorts of boundaries. VICE reports.
- The Conversation notes the concerns of Canadians about the potential privacy concerns regarding smart cities.
- This CityMetric article examines the particular role of the chain coffeeshop in the contemporary city.
- Will the tragic death of young mother Malaysia Goodson, killed trying to access public transit, lead to the spread of accessible infrastructure? Guardian Cities considers.
- A forced amalgamation of the different regional municipalities of Toronto could easily come into conflict with locals' identities, the Toronto Star noted.
- National Geographic considers Silicon Valley-type boomtowns around the world. (Toronto is on that list.)
- This Bloomberg article makes the point that, in same cases, merging cities with prosperous suburbs might be a godsends for the wider conurbations.
- This Curbed article by novelist Jami Attenberg looks at what has changed for her--what she has gained--since moving from large metropolis New York City to the smaller centre of New Orleans.
- Motherboard notes that climate change endangers a majority of the coffee species growing in the wild.
- Universe Today notes that CERN is planning to build a successor to the LHC, one a hundred kilometres in diameter.
- A review of data from Cassini, Universe Today reports, suggests the probe saw rain fall in the north polar region of Titan.
- A new analysis suggests that mysterious object in the heart of the galaxy, HCN–0.009–0.044, is actually a black hole massing 32 thousand suns. Universe Today has it.
- Universe Today shares an ambitious proposal for future humanity to use interstellar probes to seed life on potentially hospitable but lifeless worlds, a planned panspermia.
Tags:
- Because of a lack of support from the University of Toronto, Ten Editions Bookstore on Spadina Avenue between College and Bloor has closed down permanently. blogTO reports.
- Statler's on Church Street, a popular Village bar known for its performance spaces, closed down suddenly on account of massive rent increases. blogTO reports.
- The famed Coffee Time restaurant at Coxwell and Gerrard, subject of a documentary that looks at this affordable coffee place's connections to locals, has closed down permanently. blogTO reports.
- Gilbert Ngabo at the Toronto Star reports on how Torontonians now have now choice but to use the Presto card. My experiences reflect others' in that things have been working out for me, so far.
- GO Transit's connections directly to York University have ceased in the wake of the subway extension, as promised. Many who depended on the direct link are unhappy that it is no longer being sustained. Global News reports.
- This Toronto Sun article shares the call of a brother of a victim who died by suicide at a TTC station for more action to prevent such unfortunate events.
- Steve Munro reports on the different challenges facing the TTC board in 2019.
- Enzo DiMatteo at NOW Toronto makes the case that Toronto needs to continue to address gun violence as a public health issue if it is to control this plague.
- A tall and skinny home in Riverdale that has gone on sale for $C 3 million has as many detractors as supporters. Global News reports.
- CBC Toronto notes that the new nickname of the Economist for Toronto and its tech sector, "Maple Valley", is not catching on with locals.
- Marco Chown Oved at the Toronto Star shares the story of Don Sampson, a long-time resident of the Toronto Islands who faces losing the family home there because he cannot inherit the property from his brother.
- The cast of the venerable Global Television drama Train 48, filmed on a GO Transit Lakeshore West train in 2003-2005, recently reunited. Global News reports.
Tags:
- bookstores,
- church and wellesley,
- church street,
- coffee,
- crime,
- health,
- journalism,
- leslieville,
- mass media,
- mass transit,
- medicine,
- nightclubbing,
- oddities,
- politics,
- popular culture,
- restaurants,
- shopping,
- spadina avenue,
- subway,
- suicide,
- technology,
- television,
- toronto,
- toronto islands,
- ttc,
- university of toronto,
- urban note
- D-Brief notes evidence that indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest smoked tobacco long before Europeans arrived.
- Atlas Obscura looks at "yaupon tea", a caffeinated beverage brewed from the leaves and stems of the cassina plant of the southeastern United States popular among indigeous peoples but mysteriously neglected in recent years.
- The Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake is facing a referendum over whether or not to legalize the sale of cannabis products. CTV reports.
- Cree fiddler Byron Jonah is the first person to win a new fiddling award of Eeyou Istchee, the Cree region in northern Québec. CBC reports.
- Mathieu Landriault at The Conversation looks at how, in the Justin Trudeau era, the term "Aboriginal" has been replaced by "Indigenous".
Tags:
- The final cost of the Scarborough subway remains unknown, on account of the many design changes. The Toronto Star reports.
- Steve Benjamins reports on Toronto's Jimmy's Coffee.
- The old Fairland Grocery in Kensington Market on Augusta Avenue is being made over into a funhouse. (Tickets still available at print time.) NOW Toronto reports.
- The Malta Bake Shop in the Junction is trying to resist gentrification as best as it can. The National Post reports.
- The New York Times reports on a remarkably multilingual kindergarten in Thorncliffe Park.
- blogTO takes a look at Little Jamaica along Eglinton Avenue West, a neighbourhood that persists despite gentrification and Eglinton Crosstown construction.
- Christopher Hume takes a look at The Coffee Lab, a tiny coffee shop on Spadina south of Richmond, and what this suggests about Toronto's urban future, over at the Toronto Star.
- Steve Munro takes a look at the 1973 introduction of Toronto's Tour Tram.
- As Massey Hall is set for a years-long shutdown for renovations, NOW Toronto's Richard Trapunski shares musicians' memory of this venue.
- blogTO takes a look at Claude Cormier + Associés, the Montréal-based architecture firm that has introduced quirky highlights to Toronto like the redesigned Berczy Park.
- CTV News U>reports on how established churches in Canada, facing falling attendance, are trying to reach out to new demographics.
- The South China Morning Post reports on how Winnipeg is striving to include and represent First Nations cultures, here.
- In the wake of its foreign buyout and the bad publicity after Ontario's minimum wage increase, Tim Horton's reputation among Canadians--especially as a Canadian community--seems shot. The Globe and Mail reports.
- Robyn Doolittle wonders why, in an upcoming movie inspired by the Rob Ford saga, the role based on her of a journalist whose research blew the scandal open is going to be played by a male actor. (Rightfully so, I think.) The National Post has it.
- Michelle Da Silva interviews a collection of men (and others) about their perceptions of masculinity in the era of #metoo, here.
Tags:
- Edward Keenan makes the point that, as the city prepares for elections, quotidian politics are starting to be neglected, over at the Toronto Star.
- blogTO highlights OldTO (#oldto), a open-source and open-data version of Google Maps that maps tens of thousands of old photos to different locations across the city.
- In a recent public meeting, Google tried to address the privacy and other concerns of others with the Sidewalk Labs involvement in the Quayside development. The Toronto Star reports.
- This Toronto Star take on how different coffee shops deal with customers who, after buying a single coffee, proceed to take up valuable seating for extended periods is interesting. (I try to be a good customer. When is there ever too much coffee, after all?)
- Over the year to the end of this February, real estate prices in Toronto have fallen by more than 12%. The Toronto Star reports.
</ul?
Tags:
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Mar. 6th, 2018 01:19 pm- At Anthropology.net, Kambiz Kamrani notes evidence that Australopithecus africanus suffered the same sorts of dental issues as modern humans.
- Architectuul considers, in the specific context of Portugal, a project by architects seeking to create new vehicles and new designs to enable protest.
- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at HD 34445, a Sun-like star somewhat older than our own that has two gas giants within its circumstellar habitable zone. Could these worlds have moons which could support life?
- James Bow celebrates Osgoode as Gold, the next installment in the Toronto Comics anthology of local stories.
- At Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell in the wake of Italian elections revisits the idea of post-democratic politics, of elections which cannot change things.
- D-Brief notes that monkeys given ayahuasca seem to have been thereby cured of their depression. Are there implications for humans, here?
- Dangerous Minds notes the facekini, apparently a popular accessory for Chinese beach-goers.
- Imageo notes the shocking scale of snowpack decline in the western United States, something with long-term consequences for water supplies.
- JSTOR Daily notes a paper suggesting that the cultivation of coffee does not harm--perhaps more accurately, need not harm--biodiversity.
- Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the potential of the United States to start to extricate itself from the ongoing catastrophe in Yemen.
- The NYR Daily features an interview with photographer Dominique Nabokov about her photos of living rooms.
- Drew Rowsome writes a mostly-positive review of the new drama Rise, set around a high school performance of Spring Awakening. If only the lead, the drama teacher behind the production, was not straight-washed.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes the case that there are only three major types of planets, Terran and Neptunian and Jovian.
- Towleroad notes the awkward coming out of actor Lee Pace.
- Worthwhile Canadian Initiative suggests one way to try to limit the proliferation of guns would be to engineer in planned obsolescence, at least ensuring turnover.
- Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell U>notes that one of his suggestions, ensuring that different national governments should have access to independent surveillance satellites allowing them to accurately evaluate situations on the ground, is in fact being taken up.
Tags:
- agriculture,
- architecture,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- china,
- clash of ideologies,
- coffee,
- comics,
- crime,
- democracy,
- elections,
- environment,
- evolution,
- extraterrestrial life,
- fashion,
- geopolitics,
- glbt issues,
- graphic novels,
- health,
- human beings,
- india,
- italy,
- links,
- middle east,
- photography,
- politics,
- popular culture,
- popular literature,
- portugal,
- primates,
- public art,
- south asia,
- space science,
- technology,
- television,
- theatre,
- toronto,
- united states,
- war,
- yemen
I am quite fond of the u>Black Canary Espresso Bar hidden away above street level on Yonge just north of Dundas, in the front of the Silver Snail's second-floor location. The coffee shop has a nice comics-flavoured decorating theme going, the views of the streets--especially of Edward Street extended to the west--are great, and the specialty coffees are superb. (On this occasion, I had a Black Widow, coffee with raspberry syrup.)
Galata Cafe, located at 5122 Dundas Street West, is a superb Turkish coffee restaurant. I may well head out to Etobicoke again, walking north from Kipling station, just to enjoy their strong coffee again. Certainly I'll be praising them on their Yelp page as soon as I have a moment.
- CNN reports on the rise of slender skyscrapers, in New York City and elsewhere.
- VICE notes how badly the temporary shutdown of the L line has been hurting the Queens neighbourhood of Astoria.
- National Observer wonders what Montréal can do to be friendlier to seniors. (Being open to consulting broader demographics is a good start.)
- Global News notes concerns in Vancouver that excessive condo development could block the view of the mountains surrounding that metropolis.
- CBC reports on the South Korean city of Gangneung, a place that has become the locus of that country's coffee culture.
- VICE reports on the effect that licenses allowing nightclubs to operate 24 hours a day has had on nightlife in Amsterdam.
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Jan. 11th, 2018 12:07 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares a stunning photo of two galaxies colliding in the eternal night and considers the implications of the Milky Way's future encounter with Andromeda.
- Centauri Dreams looks at the latest discoveries regarding FRB 121102 and fast radio bursts generally.
- Hornet Stories suggests that a recent ruling by the Inter American Court of Human Rights sets the stage for marriage equality across Latin America.
- Inkfish notes that the biomass of dead squid mothers plays a major role in the environments and ecologies of seafloors.
- JSTOR Daily suggests retirees can actually learn a lot from the lifestyles of members of the RV--recreational vehicle--community.
- Language Hat reports on wordplay, and its translations, in the works of Homer.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the turn to anti-intellectualism among American conservatives.
- At Lingua Franca, William Germano talks about telling numbers.
- The LRB Blog notes the story of the English village of Imber, intentionally depopulated by the British military during the Second World War and never allowed to be restored.
- The NYR Daily talks about a London exhibition on the art of our era of terrorism and terror.
- The Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest Juno discoveries from Jupiter.
- Progressive Download's John Farrell reports on a debate as to whether the origin of life is a more difficult question than the origin of consciousness.
- Roads and Kingdoms reports on the simple pleasures of an iced coffee enjoyed in the Australian Outback.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel U>considers an interesting question: is ours the only advanced civilization in the universe?
- Understanding Society's Daniel Little tackles the concept of organizational cultures.
- Window on Eurasia suggests that post-1991 immigrants from the former Soviet Union form a tenth of the Russian labour force.
Tags:
- astronomy,
- australia,
- biology,
- blogs,
- cephalopods,
- clash of ideologies,
- coffee,
- consciousness,
- demographics,
- disasters,
- education,
- england,
- environment,
- extraterrestrial intelligence,
- former soviet union,
- glbt issues,
- jupiter,
- language,
- latin america,
- links,
- london,
- marriage rights,
- oceans,
- popular literature,
- public art,
- restaurants,
- russia,
- science,
- second world war,
- sociology,
- space science,
- terrorism,
- tourism,
- travel,
- united kingdom,
- united states
- Edward Keenan points out that the reluctance of Tim Horton's franchises to accommodate the new Ontario minimum wage is really hurting their all-Canadian branding, writing at the Toronto Star.
- Matthew Keegan at The Guardian examines the imminent demise of Patua, the Portuguese-based creole now spoken by only a very few people in Macau.
- Of course multiple species of birds in Australia have developed the cultural trait of active helping wildfires expand in their own interest. It is Australia, right? The National Post reports.
- Live Science suggests that the humpback whale that saved a diver from a shark attack may not have been planning to do just that. I wonder ...
Tags:
